1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to managing and effecting an enterprise-wide technology migration, and more specifically, to an integrated set of tools and processes to manage an enterprise-wide information technology migration.
2. Background Art
Many corporations and other enterprises have very extensive information technology or telecommunications systems or networks. These systems may include personal computers, workstations, servers, printers, monitors, data storage facilities, as well as the many software applications used on these devices and all the wiring, cabling and connectors needed to interconnect the system or network components.
From time to time, it is necessary or desirable to make extensive or fundamental changes in or to these networks or systems. For instance, an enterprise may want to migrate from one basic type of network to another. Examples of such migration include: Token-ring to Ethernet; Windows to LINUX; Dell PCs to IBM PCs; Microsoft Exchange/Outlook to Lotus Notes; and phone system migrations.
These migrations, because of the large number of pieces of equipment involved, the disparate nature of these pieces of equipment, and the complex relationships between the equipment, can be very difficult, complicated and expensive to manage. There does not exist in the prior art a configurable, integrated and end-to-end set of processes and corresponding electronic toolsuite to manage effectively large scale enterprise-wide information technology-related or telecommunications-related migrations.